What are sins, exactly?

[elysianverse]

Shalom,

Murder, adultery etc. hurt people, so they are sins. But what of activities like TV etc. which don’t hurt anyone. Are they also sins, or are they neutral (meaning neither holy nor sinful)?

Thanks,
Elysian

 

[bmullins]

They are neutral. That is they can be good or bad, according to how you use them. A gun is neutral. It can be a good device for protection, hunting, etc. It can also be used in murder. Objects are usually neutral in nature, it’s their use that determines whether a sin happens or not.

 

[Bookcat]

Depends on the activity…or the show…etc. It need not hurt another to be a sin.

 

[Bookcat]

The Compendium’s summary

SIN

1. What does the acceptance of God’s mercy require from us?

1846-1848
1870

It requires that we admit our faults and repent of our sins. God himself by his Word and his Spirit lays bare our sins and gives us the truth of conscience and the hope of forgiveness.

1. What is sin?

1849-1851
1871-1872

Sin is “a word, an act, or a desire contrary to the eternal Law” (Saint Augustine). It is an offense against God in disobedience to his love. It wounds human nature and injures human solidarity. Christ in his passion fully revealed the seriousness of sin and overcame it with his mercy.

1. Is there a variety of sins?

1852-1853
1873

There are a great many kinds of sins. They can be distinguished according to their object or according to the virtues or commandments which they violate. They can directly concern God, neighbor, or ourselves. They can also be divided into sins of thought, of word, of deed, or of omission.

1. How are sins distinguished according to their gravity?

1854

A distinction is made between mortal and venial sin.

1. When does one commit a mortal sin?

1855-1861
1874

One commits a mortal sin when there are simultaneously present: grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent. This sin destroys charity in us, deprives us of sanctifying grace, and, if unrepented, leads us to the eternal death of hell. It can be forgiven in the ordinary way by means of the sacraments of Baptism and of Penance or Reconciliation.

1. When does one commit a venial sin?

1862-1864
1875

One commits a venial sin, which is essentially different from a mortal sin, when the matter involved is less serious or, even if it is grave, when full knowledge or complete consent are absent. Venial sin does not break the covenant with God but it weakens charity and manifests a disordered affection for created goods. It impedes the progress of a soul in the exercise of the virtues and in the practice of moral good. It merits temporal punishment which purifies.

1. How does sin proliferate?

1865
1876

Sin creates a proclivity to sin ; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts.

1. What are vices?

1866-1867

Vices are the opposite of virtues. They are perverse habits which darken the conscience and incline one to evil. The vices can be linked to the seven, so-called, capital sins which are: pride, avarice, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.

1. Do we have any responsibility for sins committed by others?

1868

We do have such a responsibility when we culpably cooperate with them.

1. What are structures of sin?

1869

Structures of sin are social situations or institutions that are contrary to the divine law. They are the expression and effect of personal sins.

vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html

 

[FightingFat]

Shalom,

Murder, adultery etc. hurt people, so they are sins. But what of activities like TV etc. which don’t hurt anyone. Are they also sins, or are they neutral (meaning neither holy nor sinful)?

Thanks,
Elysian

CCC 1849: Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”

1850 Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.” Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods,” knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.” In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a8.htm

Think about it like this: We are all culpable for our actions. The morality of what we do can be deciphered by considering:

• the object chosen;
• the end in view or the intention;
• the circumstances of the action.

The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the “sources,” or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts.

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a4.htm

 

[Barbkw]

Many television programs have sinful content and the producers do this to normalize sinful behavior. Currently on television, there is a unified push to normalize homosexual lifestyles and gay marriage. For multiple numbers of years, television has normalized divorce and remarriage, recreational drug use, cigarettes, alcohol consumption, sex outside of marriage, etc.

Additionally today, many stations after 11:30 have basically become avenues for soft porn.

 

[FightingFat]

Many television programs have sinful content and the producers do this to normalize sinful behavior. Currently on television, there is a unified push to normalize homosexual lifestyles and gay marriage. For multiple numbers of years, television has normalized divorce and remarriage, recreational drug use, cigarettes, alcohol consumption, sex outside of marriage, etc.

Additionally today, many stations after 11:30 have basically become avenues for soft porn.

Very true and very sad. Where are all the great movies too? Everything today is violent or pornographic! Even the kids stuff seems so full of double entendres they’re painful to watch!

 

[Barbkw]

But what of activities like TV etc. which don’t hurt anyone.

Multiple numbers of television channels and television programs are “near occasions for sin”.

Very very very few programs today display consistent chastity of the heart, soul and body.

Commercials today aren’t decent to be viewed around children.

I’m even very distrustful of religious history programming. Much of it is still so slated toward the veiwpoint of protestantism and or New Age ecumenism. One man here renamed the History Channel the Heresy Channel.

 

[Khalid]

A sin is something that damages one’s relationship with God. Sometimes it damages relationships with other people, but that’s an auxiliary aspect: it has nothing to do with what sin is. Something can damage relationships with other people and not be a sin.

Cigarettes and alcohol haven’t been “normalized” by TV - for a long time in America (and still in most of the rest of the world), most people smoke. Most people have been drinking, even if not drunkards, since the first rotten fruit was eaten by a cave-man.

However, the other issues brought up - homosexuality, other “alternative lifestyles” (and that very term), fornication, adultery, divorce - the media has played a large role in normalizing these things, especially homosexuality, fornication, and adultery.

 

[Matrix_Refugee]

Cigarettes and alcohol haven’t been “normalized” by TV - for a long time in America (and still in most of the rest of the world), most people smoke. Most people have been drinking, even if not drunkards, since the first rotten fruit was eaten by a cave-man.

I was gonna say, there was, back in the 1920s, this problem in our country called Prohibition, and the push for it started way back in the 1820s, when there weren’t even movies, let alone TV. The ancient Egyptians pretty much invented beer, and I think wine was invented by the Sumerians, if not by people in the prehistoric times.

 

[Barbkw]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Health_Cigarette_Smoking_Act

Congress therefore passed the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act of 1984, requiring more specific health warnings.[5]

The tobacco industry has begun to use a variety of other marketing tools and strategies to influence people and attract new customers.[6]

In particular, ads targeted to adolescents affect their perceptions on the image and function of smoking.[7]

In 1991, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study showing that more children 5 and 6 years old could recognize Camel cigarettes’ Joe Camel mascot than could recognize Mickey Mouse or Fred Flintstone.[8]

Camel increased its adolescent customer base dramatically, from less than 1% before 1988 to more than 13% in 1993.[6]

 

[Khalid]

In 1850, long before any of that, smoking was still very prevalent, even if in the form of cigars and pipes, and not cigarettes. “Underage smoking” didn’t exist until laws against smoking under a certain age were passed in the middle of the 20th century.